The Power of Myth
Written by Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
Contents:
Program 1: The Hero's Adventure
Program 2: The Message of the Myth
Program 3: The First Storytellers
Program 4: Sacrifice and Bliss
Program 5: Love and the Goddess
Program 6: Masks of Eternity
Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers is a veteran journalist, broadcaster, and author. Former managing editor of Moyers & Company and BillMoyers.com, his previous shows on PBS included NOW with Bill Moyers and Bill Moyers Journal. Over the past three and a half decades he has become an icon of American journalism and is the author of many books, including Bill Moyers Journal: The Conversation Continues, Moyers on Democracy, and Healing and the Mind. He was one of the organizers of the Peace Corps, a special assistant for Lyndon B. Johnson, a publisher of Newsday, senior correspondent for CBS News, and a producer of many groundbreaking series on public television. He is the winner of more than 30 Emmys, nine Peabodys, three George Polk awards.
More audiobooks from Bill Moyers
Healing and the Mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Moyers on Democracy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Language of Life: A Festival of Poets Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Genesis: A Living Conversation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Corporations Are Not People: Why They Have More Rights Than You Do and What You Can Do About It Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHe Called Me Sister: A True Story of Finding Humanity on Death Row Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The Power of Myth
Related audiobooks
Joseph Campbell: A Hero For All Seasons Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Heroine with 1001 Faces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wisdom of Joseph Campbell Part 2 of 13 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Alchemy and Archetypes Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wisdom of Joseph Campbell Part 6 of 13 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Once and Future Myths: The Power of Ancient Stories in Our Lives Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wisdom of Joseph Campbell Part 12 of 13 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Archetypes To Live By Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hero Inside Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Your Mythic Journey: Finding Meaning in Your Life Through Writing and Storytelling Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOriginal Self Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Genius: The Divine Mission Of The Soul Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The “Narrative Intelligence” of the Greek Myths Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wisdom of Joseph Campbell Part 1 of 13 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Man and His Symbols Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Modern Man in Search of a Soul Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jungian Archetypes, Audio Course Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Conversation Continues Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wisdom of Joseph Campbell Part 5 of 13 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5C. G. Jung: The Basics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wisdom of Joseph Campbell Part 3 of 13 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Using Myth To Power Your Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tao te Ching Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jung: A Very Short Introduction Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Siddhartha Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wisdom of Joseph Campbell Part 7 of 13 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Decoding Jung's Metaphysics: The Archetypal Semantics of an Experiential Universe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex, and Death in a World That’s Lost Its Mind Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Anthropology For You
They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bullshit Jobs: A Theory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Status Game: On Human Life and How to Play It Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Age of Deer: Trouble and Kinship with our Wild Neighbors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Civilized To Death: The Price of Progress Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Art of Making Memories: How to Create and Remember Happy Moments Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why We Love: The New Science Behind Our Closest Relationships Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Art of Community: Seven Principles for Belonging Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Friendship Cure: Reconnecting in the Modern World Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Different Drum Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cult Trip Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wheel of Time: The Shamans of Mexico Their Thoughts about Life Death and the Universe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Neuroplasticity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girl Who Sang to the Buffalo: A Child, an Elder, and the Light from an Ancient Sky Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for The Power of Myth
280 ratings30 reviews
What our readers think
Readers find this title to be a wonderful and enlightening book that offers a deep understanding of human culture and mythology. The interview with Joseph Campbell is highly recommended, with many praising his wisdom and insights. While not everyone agrees with everything discussed, the overall consensus is that this interview series is a fantastic and insightful exploration of stories, philosophy, religion, and spirituality. It is seen as a quest for enlightenment and a valuable resource for those seeking knowledge and wisdom.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I love what Joseph Campbell has to say, but the interview style of the book was distracting.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Could not finish it. Got through the first section with difficulty and decided not to finish. I think it was the format of it being a dialogue from the televised series.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent! Insightful interview!
I had no idea just how universal the archetypes discussed in this interview are.1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A fantastic interview series of Joseph Campbell. There are many wonderful stories to learn from, but in this series, Joseph Campbell is the master who's translated the myth, understood the philosophy and living them as experiences. The master doesn't pull any punches in challenging the dogma of religion and doctrines. He also paints those teachings of religion in a newer light and newer understanding, taking the stigma out of these discussion points. The talks cover stories, mythology, philosophy, religion, and spirituality. In the end, it's a quest for enlightenment.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Makes me want to learn even more from Joseph Campbell. And I will listen to anything with Bill Moyers.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The ocean of translucent knowledge giving rise to eternal wisdom.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I loved the PBS series. Hearing it again gave me the opportunity to catch things I had forgotten or missed the first time.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5When you read The Power of Myth you will better understand humanity past and present and you will better understand yourself. Written as a conversation between Campbell and Moyer, you can follow the exploration of myth through many different topics and threads of conversation. Rather than a polished piece of scholarship, it's more like a stroll through Campbell's mind and his lifetime of looking at human experience through the lens of myth. I recommend it to anyone who is searching for meaning and knows that finding it only requires searching.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Absolutely wrong, and amazingly right all at the same time.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An enlightening book that uses the values, stories and myths of all cultures to build an understanding of the human contrition in its deepest sense. Highly recommend it to read and re-read.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You cannot go wrong with the wisdom of Joseph Campbell. Timeless.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Incredible knowledge bombs dropped by Campbell, a distillation of 70 years of searching. Check it out
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Campbell was a genius and understood a lot about spirits.
Well Done! - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I didn't agree with everything, but still a great interview!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why do we need our folk tales, anyway? Why can't our religious icons be accepted at face value, instead of lifting them up higher than life? How do phrases like "Son of God" spring so easily and meaningfully from our lips? Why must we idolize our heroes, why do we embrace our rituals?Journalist Bill Moyers interviews Joseph Campbell to learn why mythology is so important to us. This is sort of a compilation of Campbell's work. Says Campbell, mythology is the "song of the universe, the music of the spheres." It is what turns each little cluster of believers, with their own heritage, into the world's Chosen People. From Dante's Divine Comedy to Native American rituals, Campbell has plenty of opinions. He's an intellectual who is simply fun to read...he's got a way of just making sense, like a sort of Feynman for philosophers, that leaves you feeling like maybe you finally understand something.This isn't a new book, but it's one of those must-reads that we shouldn't forget. I don't think Campbell means to trivialize religion, culture or customs; rather, I dare say, you might even find God in these pages.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Six tapes dealing with myths of all cultures, particularly Native American and Hindu.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It's a series of interviews Campbell gave to Bill Moyers on the nature and power of myth taped over two years, with the last one done a few months before his death . In a format of questions and answersCampbell examines common myths that transcend cultures and human conditions: on the hero, the nature of myth, storytelling, the goddess, and finally what we understand of eternity. His thoughts arevery insightful and show both immense knowledge of the subject matter and an amazing ability to both analyze and synthesize. He is at an equal ease citing from Greek and Western philosophers, Old and NewTestament, Eastern ancient texts, and various aboriginal cultural tradition. He spices it all up with stories and myths which he retells with great skill.Wonderful stuff. I'll be reading more of him.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wonderful talk with Joseph Campbell. The man is truly a joy to hear speak
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great! I was introduced to Joseph Campbell many years ago in my youth! Now I’m revisiting it to get a refresh on his beautiful work! I have many of his books! This one is also a pbs special that is great as well!
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I have the Power of Myth book in front of me, and this isn’t it.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fascinating travel in the realm of Myth, which as revealed by this professor in comparative mythology, is recurrent through time and space. Myths, a roadmap for those ready for an inner journey.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Just fucking mind-opening and amazing.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The transcript from the PBS (I think) special, basically. Organized into six parts, each with its own broad focus, eg the Hero's Adventure.I found this to be a very significant work; it addressed certain issues I, as a proto-adult (read: teenager) have been confronting. Such as the lack of a coming-of-age ritual in order to demonstrate that the individual has become an adult. They also talk about our modern lack of mythology, and how it has affected modern mankind. Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers are obviously very intelligent, well read, thoughtful individuals, and it comes through in a stupendous way in their discussion of myth and myth's psychological and sociological significance. Of course, since it's only roughly structured, many of the issues discussed are rehashed several times, though in slightly different contexts. Sometimes, it seems as if they're giving myth a somewhat inflated weight, but generally I found their observations to be accurate. Highly recommend for anyone interested in mythology, as it's very accessible and has enough theory to keep it from sinple myth-retellings. 8/10
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An amazing book. Despite the obvious level of intelligence and knowledge demonstrated by Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell, it's very readable and made me feel that I was witness to a conversation--as, in many ways, I was, since the book is based upon their taped interviews.While there were points that I felt Campbell spoke with too much certainty, it's difficult to criticize him due to the extraordinary breadth and depth of his knowledge, which certainly outstrips mine. Far more often, however, my response was one of recognition, accompanied sometimes by a sense of agreement, other times by thoughtful contemplation of something new or profound.I enjoyed reading this very much and will probably read it again; I also hope to watch the taped interviews some day.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Changes the way you view stories and story-telling.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This book is a transcription of a wide-ranging interview between Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell. They discuss all sorts of myths and rituals - worldwide, past and present (even, famously, Star Wars) – and their meaning and relevance to modern-day life. While Campbell is unsurprisingly erudite with piles of interesting stories, there was too much jumping around for my taste. The book is loosely divided into chapters with a guiding topic but the pair tends to go off on tangents. The myths that Campbell describes are interesting – I did like his narration. However, because it’s a discussion, he often only adds a quick aside of what the myth meant or how it relates to something they’ve been talking about. Other times he talks about the meaning in rather opaque, abstract terms. I thought the best parts were the extended discussions of a theme – hunting myths vs agricultural myths or the chapter on the hero’s journey. I had to read this pretty quickly as it had to go back to the library so this may have interfered with my enjoyment of the book. Most of the time I didn’t feel like I really wanted to read it though it was interesting enough while I was reading. Also, it irritated me that Campbell repeatedly attributes gangs, drugs and alcohol to the fact that myths are no longer as influential as they once were. He says this in a very simplistic, cause-and-effect way and Moyers never contradicts him. However, I have heard that Campbell should be taken with a grain of salt. There was enough of interest here that I bought Hero with a Thousand Faces.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fascinating interview ! Highly recommended! Me Campbell work and the approach made by Mr Moyer it’s a great gift.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This is an extended interview, which is at times interesting and at times a little jumpy and scattered. I imagine it would be great to listen to. It's a decent low-key introduction to Campbell's thoughts.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I read this over the course of about 4 weeks, so I've lost my sense of the early chapters and thus can't fairly discuss it as a unified whole. In any case, the fact that it was (according to the introduction) cobbled together from 24 hours' worth of interview means the book isn't really an organically unified whole anyway. That said, there are bits and pieces through all of the chapters that I thought particularly interesting, ideas expressed particularly clearly or (in the case of ideas new to me) even at all. I don't agree with everything, but the shape of Campbell's ideas seems fairly well articulated.Many of the examples are similar to those Campbell adduced in The Inner Reaches of Outer Space, so nothing new there.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One of the great audio presentations that I will keep returning to in my life. Moyers is perfectly suited to illuminate Campbell’s masterful work.